weedeat

[Wilson Gray]

When I was a kid in Saint Louis, we "whipped grass." The WeedEater had
not yet been invented. There was a tool called a "grass whip," like
unto a sling blade, but all-metal, light and easy to use. Down in
Texas, we used a heavy, wooden-handled, callus-causing sling blade,
but we didn't call it that. Unfortunately, I can't recall what it was
that we did call it.

[Name-drop: the director of _Sling Blade_ and many other movies,
George Hickenlooper, Jr., is the son of one of my high-school
classmates and also a graduate of the same high school.]

-Wilson

On 7/3/07, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> Subject:      Re: weedeat
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
> At 7/3/2007 11:40 AM, Paul Johnson wrote:
> >Here in North Central Ar. we weed wack/whack
>
> Here in the Boston area I use a weed whacker -- but I don't think
> I've ever made that into a verb (other than "to whack weeds").
>
> Joel
>
>
> >Charles Doyle wrote:
> >>A teenager told me that she and a friend had been doing yard work:
> >>"She mowed, and I weedeated." Yes, "weedeated" does seem like a
> >>better preterit than "weedate" (1880 Google hits vs. 105). The OED
> >>appears not to have "weedeater" or any backformed form (?!).
>
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>


--
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-----
                                              -Sam'l Clemens

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